A. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to apparatus and methods for teaching, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for teaching students to recognize and understand the function of the various parts of speech in a sentence.
B. Description of the Prior Art
One of the primary steps in obtaining literacy is mastery of basic grammar, including parts of speech, prepositional phrases and their functions, and noun functions. Without such mastery, effective oral and written expression are virtually impossible.
The traditional method of teaching grammar is a process known as diagraming. In diagraming, the words or phrases of a sentence are placed upon a diagram according to certain rules. Most students are able to apply the rules of diagraming and thereby become proficient in recognizing and using the various gramatical forms. However, some students are baffled by the diagraming process and never learn grammar.
Students who are unable to learn grammar by the traditional methods, present particular problems to teachers. Teachers of language probably never encountered any difficulty in learning grammar, and are therefore unable to understand how it feels to be baffled by grammar. Moreover, language teachers are probably bored or impatient with teaching parts of speech because they feel that the students should have mastered such basics before arriving at their class. Teachers would rather concentrate on other and more esoteric language functions. Additionally, children who have mastered the parts of speech are bored with repetition and those who have not mastered the parts of speech are predisposed to find its study distasteful. Grammar study tends to be enjoyable for neither teachers nor students.
A number of apparatus and methods have been developed for attempting to teach grammar in ways that are more effective and less painful than the traditional methods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,480 discloses a method of teaching the parts of speech that includes assigning a basic color to each part of speech and then coloring cards having words thereon with the color assigned to the part of speech corresponding to that word and adding to the card a secondary color that corresponds to the part of speech that the word modifies. In the method of the '480 patent colors are arbitrarily assigned.
Other examples of methods and apparatus for teaching grammar in non-traditional ways are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,816; U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,891; U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,976; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,482,333. In the methods of the foregoing U.S. Patents, names of parts of speech are assigned to words. The names are assigned simply by memory; there is no emphasis upon the functional nature of parts of speech.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for teaching grammar that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for teaching grammar that emphasizes the functional nature of parts of speech, rather than mere memorization of the names of parts of speech.
It is yet a further objection of the present invention to teach parts of speech, noun functions and prepositional phrases to students in a thorough, pleasant and effective manner.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for teaching grammar that promote positive feelings of success in what has often traditionally been a tedious and troublesome subject.